We still have no idea exactly when Sam Mendes will be dropping everything to get into directing the 24th James Bond film, which is of course a shame. But we may end up getting a movie about the man who influenced M in that series, as Universal won a bidding war for the spec script Section 6, a spy thriller from first time writer Aaron Berg. And while it’s still very early going, Hugh Jackman is among several A-list actors who read the script and responded positively to it.

Now that he’ll be done filming movies as Wolverine for a while, with Bryan Singer’s X-Men: Days of Future Past done with production and hitting theaters next May, Jackman will have ample time to continue taking on projects that are more emotionally challenging than comic book movies. He’s already shown the world that he’s at the top of his acting game with Tom Hooper’s Les Misérables last year and Denis Villeneuve’s Prisoners last month. Except for a planned biopic of P.T. Barnum, The Greatest Showman on Earth, Jackman really doesn’t have any meaty roles coming up, and Section 6 could very well be the complex drama that his career needs right now.

Berg received a $1.2 million payday for the script, which Universal outbid Sony to acquire. It will tell the story behind the formation of the British Intelligence agency back in 1909, and its first director, Sir George Mansfield Cummings, the inspiration for M. According to TheWrap, Berg developed the script with producer Lawrence Grey, who produced Jon Turteltaub’s old-timer comedy Last Vegas and next years’ thriller Hidden with Matt and Ross Duffer.

For a film like this, you’d expect someone well-versed in the action thriller genre to take the reins, and indeed several big name directors have expressed their interest in the film. Justin Lin, who made his name directing the last four films in the Fast & Furious franchise, is one of them, and it could be a good fit, especially since he isn’t currently working on anything. The other name TheWrap mentions is Brett Ratner, who is currently busy filming Dwayne Johnson in Hercules: The Thracian Wars. I rarely find myself ever saying that Ratner is the right fit for something, having made the disastrous X-Men: The Last Stand. But Hercules might bring him back to people’s attention in a huge way.

Is anyone else on board with seeing Jackman in a spy thriller? Take a look at the video below, which documents the early years of MI6, and see if you think he’d be a good fit with this kind of material.